Approximately 30,000 to 40,000 postoperative transsexual women live in the
United States, and many thousands more are now in the process of gender
transition here. These numbers are much larger than commonly assumed by the
public because a veil of invisibility hides the true nature and extent of
the
transsexual
condition. Especially hidden are large numbers of highly successful women
who have fully transitioned. The reason is that most successful women live
in "stealth mode" or are "woodworked". They leave their pasts behind and
hide in plain sight in order to avoid social stigmatization and get on with
their new lives. Their personal successes insure that they assimilate and
blend right into society.

The invisibility of these successes
supports notions that gender transitions often have rather sad outcomes.
At present, the media only spotlights transsexual people on two
occasions, namely when "someone well-known changes sex" and when someone
is a victim of discrimination, harassment or attack. Media stories about
someone's "sex change" are never followed-up to find out what happened
years later. Instead stories always focus on pre-transition life and
struggles during transition and never on their life afterwards. This
lack of balance in exposure shapes society's notion that transition
leads to social marginalization or worse, because we "never hear about
them again". Only stories of occasional social failures and victims of
harassment and attacks remain visible longer term.

Lacking successful role models, and
confronted with deliberately staged, stereotypically-prurient images of
"transsexuals" from media like the Jerry Springer Show, young trans
girls are often terrified to tell anyone about their condition.
Constantly reminded of the violence and discrimination that trans people
face, but unaware that large numbers of successful women get beyond such
difficulties, many young transsexual girls can't see any way out of
their awful predicament. Social stigmatization of transsexualism leads
many young people to internalize a lot of undeserved shame,
embarrassment and guilt about their condition. As a result, young
transsexual girls often waste precious years before they seek help, and
many never find a way to correct their gender condition.

Recently the veil of invisibility has
been lifting, as many post-operative women all around the world have
begun creating websites to help others. Some of these women are quietly
"out" within the TS community. Others share their stories by being
"virtually out" (VO) only via the web (while otherwise remaining
woodworked or in stealth). We are very fortunate to finally be able to
learn about their lives, as they become listed on webpages such as this
one. Lynn hopes that more and more successful women will quietly come
out, and feel comfortable sharing their stories this way via the web.

The women listed on these pages are a
very diverse group. They are of many different nationalities, races and
ethnicities. They come from a wide range of social classes and family
backgrounds. They transitioned at many different ages. Some have been
postop a long time, others transitioned more recently. Some have been
"out" for many years, others are still living stealthily.

Many of these women had to suffer
terrible trials in order to transition, especially those who did so
years ago. Some rose from extremely humble beginnings, including living
on the streets, and yet succeeded anyways. Others had easier transitions
in more recent times in the more enlightened western countries. A few
were even fortunate enough to have had the support of their parents when
they were young. As you'll see, this webpage isn't meant to be an
"honor roll" or whatever. Instead it is meant to be place where these
many diverse yet representative role models can come forward and become
more visible - role models who are mostly accessible via the internet
for interactions and help.

The thing that makes these women
"successes" isn't how far they've gone in their careers, or how much
money they've made, or how pretty some of them are, or how well known
some are as entertainers. Those accomplishments are very meaningful, and
show that transitioning doesn't have to hold a woman back from achieving
traditional social measures of success. However, the real successes we
find here are ones of the heart. They are successes in living "life in
the large". We see it in the happy faces, and sense it in between the
lines of their stories. These are the successes of women who have
survived and corrected their earlier transsexualism, and gone on to find
joy and comfort and peace in their lives.

Taken together, our stories will
gradually help change people's views of the transsexual condition. After
all, we are happy and productive contributors in all walks of life: as
doctors and lawyers, as scientists, engineers and programmers, as
airline pilots, as entrepreneurs, managers and office workers, as
university professors and students, in politics, in education, in law
enforcement, in the skilled trades, in modeling and in entertainment.
The realities and completeness of our physical gender transformations
cannot be denied. Many of us are wives, lovers or partners in long-term
loving relationships. You can put a compelling human face on the
transsexual condition by browsing the websites linked from these pages,
which contain information about the experiences of these successful
women.

Lynn hopes that these women's stories
provide hope, encouragement and role models to others, especially to
those young transsexual girls-to-be who are facing gender transition. As
teenagers they (and their parents and loved ones) need to learn that a
complete correction of their gender condition is now possible by
applying the knowledge gained by the pathfinders who have gone before,
and by exploiting the miracles of modern medicine. They also need to
learn of the profound advantages of undergoing gender correction while
young, as opposed to living in angst in the wrong gender for decades and
then finally transitioning, in desperation, late in life. If parents can
just learn to see that their transsexual child is really a "girl with a
physical problem" rather than a "boy with a mental problem", then that
child's future is especially hopeful. With parental love and support, a
young transsexual girl can now reach for her dreams, and go on to live a
full and joyous life as a woman.

The
main purpose of these pages is to provide role models for individuals who
are facing gender transition, especially young TS girls who are often
desperately fearful of what the future might hold for them. This page is
aimed at providing them with hope and with a wide range of diverse role
models to help show them the way.

Through these pages, young transitioners
may also be able to help their parents, relatives, friends and others
important in their lives to understand that undergoing a gender correction
does not mean living a marginalized life, and that they will be fine
afterwards. In spite of the difficulties involved in such transitions, the
stories on this page show that many postop women go on to live very full and
happy lives.

The pages are also aimed at countering
public stereotypes of women who have undergone gender corrections. No
one who reads these pages and studies the many stories here can help but
have a very different image of such women than those traditionally
presented by the media or written about by "experts".

Readers of these pages are strongly
encouraged to proactively use this material to help counter negative
media stereotypes. Whenever you read a media report that misrepresents
transsexual women, SEND the writer and publisher the URL for this page,
and ask them if they've ever seen this website. If they answer "no",
then ask them "Why not?" Ask them "Why are you publishing things that so
misrepresent TS women, when there is so much counter-evidence to your
views?"

Readers should also CHALLENGE any and
all "experts" and "authority figures" in organized religion, in
medicine, in psychiatry, in bureaucracies, in corporate personnel
departments, in the legal system and in the political system in the same
way. Whenever you hear "experts" say erroneous things about transsexual
women, challenge those "experts" by insisting that they learn about and
study these pages.

In the past, OTHERS HAVE ALWAYS SPOKEN
FOR US. It's always been others: physicians, psychiatrists, religious
authority figures, lawyers, "ethicists", politicians, gender counselors,
and in recent years gay, lesbian, and feminist activists. All these
outsider "experts" have spoken for us, each with their own axe to grind
and their own "expert theories" and spins on who we are and why we are.
For example, see the following pages in my website concerning the
controversy surrounding a book by psychologist
J. Michael
Bailey's which denigrates and caricatures transsexual women:
Learn about the Bailey book controversy (more)

In every case, such "experts" have known only a
tiny, totally non-representative sample of "trans" women, if indeed they
have known any at all. Few of these "experts" have ever known a successful
postop woman. Yet they always feel free to speak "for us". They tell people
how to think about us, and spin endless bizarre theories about us.

How have they gotten away with this
misrepresentation? The reason is simple: Our very successes have meant that
we've been almost "invisible" in the past. We've also failed by not having
the courage to challenge the abusive stereotyping and misrepresentation of
who we really are.

Well folks, that era is over. We're no
longer going to be invisible, and we are increasingly going to "speak
for ourselves".

As it turns out, the most effective way
we can "speak" is by living very full, productive and happy lives. Our
life stories will then speak volumes, and will help publicly shatter the
old stereotypes posed by all those "experts". In the end, who we are
isn't a matter of "theory" or "opinion" or "who dominates thought by
shouting loudest". Instead it is simply an empirical matter of observing
our real lives in the real world.

You can greatly help in this process by
making these "successes" as publicly visible as you possibly can,
especially among physicians, psychiatrists, religious leaders, lawyers,
politicians, gender counselors, etc., and yes - also among gays,
lesbians and feminists. All these outsiders who've been speaking for us
need a good lesson in who we really are, and they especially need to
know about the now visible, undeniable reality of our successes.

Emily
Hobbie's Genderpeace website is also aimed at the young transitioner.
Emily's site can help young trans girls find peace, comfort, self-acceptance
and then happiness after "surviving transsexualism".

Also be sure to read the wonderful
on-line books From
Within by Vicky, and
Mom, I need to be a girl by Just Evelyn. Vicky is a young
teenager who is now transitioning. In
From
Within she is conveying what it feels like to grow up as a girl
in a boy's body - revealing all the confusions, emotions and experiences
along the way from early childhood to, and through, gender transition.
Mom,
I need to be a girl is an inspiring book of a young TS
girl's transition, written by her mother (Just) Evelyn who fully
supported her gender transition.

An especially good way for a young TS girl to
explain to her parents what she is going through, and also how her gender
condition can be corrected, is to have her parents read From Within
and
Mom, I need to be a girl. These on-line books, combined with Lynn's
TG/TS/IS information webpages and this TS
Successes Page, can also help young transitioners communicate about
their condition with their extended families, their classmates, and their
friends.

It is very important for young people who
are feeling some degree of gender angst to realize that there are many
options available for resolving their condition. Depending upon the
intensity of their gender condition they may find really good solutions in
P/T crossdressing, or by transitioning hormonally and socially into an
androgynous condition while retaining a male identity, or by undergoing a
hormonal and social (TG) transition and taking on a female identity without
undergoing SRS.

Only in cases of intense transsexualism
is a complete TS transition (including SRS) usually required if the girl
is to go on to a full and happy life. There are many transgender people
who do not have intensely transsexual feelings, and for them SRS can be
a big mistake (see
Lynn's "SRS Warning" page). Thus it is very important that young
transitioners carefully determine the right gender trajectory for their
own particular case. Only you will know what's best. Listen to your own
heart - it will tell you what to do. And remember, there is no shame in
establishing a transgender identity and not having SRS. There are many
who have chosen that path and become successful too. If you study the
many lists of "T-girls" (CD's, DQ's, and TG transitioners) on the web,
you can gain insight into the possibilities for TG transitions.

On the other hand, those who suffer
from the intense TS condition almost always know with certainty, even as
teenagers, that they need to be girls and that a TS transition is the
only solution that will work for them. It is for these girls that this
page is especially designed. The women in the page above are a testament
to the fact that complete TS transitions can now be very successful for
intensely TS girls who are highly motivated, who plan things very
carefully, who work hard to transition, and who move on with a strong
sense of self-acceptance into their lives as women afterwards.

*Important Note About FtM
Transsexualism:

Since Lynn is a TS woman, MtF transsexualism is
the main focus of her webpages. However, not only are there many boys who
really should have been girls, but there are also many children born as
girls who really should have been boys. In fact, female to male (FtM)
transsexualism is almost as common as MtF transsexualism. In recent years
hormonal and surgical treatments have enabled many TS men to transition very
successfully, and there is now extensive information about such transitions
on the web.For information on FtM transsexualism, see the websites for
FtM International Website, American
Boyz, and FtM Resources &
Links, and follow the many links at those sites.

Deep Stealth
Productions presented the V-Day 2004 Worldwide Campaign
event for Los Angeles on Saturday, February 21st. In cooperation
with the author, internationally-known playwright Eve Ensler, and
under the auspices of Jane Fonda, this benefit performance featured
the first ever transgender cast of "The Vagina Monologues," and
included a new monologue written by Eve especially for this event.

Lynn gives her special
thanks to "David",
Carla Antonelli
and
Lorna Root for inspiring her to create these TS Successes pages. David is
the author of the orignal "Gallery of Goddesses" website (now offline), which
conveyed a wonderfully positive image of transgendered and transsexual women
from all around the world. Lynn first learned about the stories of a number of
the successful postop women listed here from David's site. That site has been
down lately (and links to it from Lynn's site don't work right now). Hopefully
David's site will be on-line again someday. Lynn then met
Carla Antonelli
on-line and learned of her LGBT support activities and her
Spanish language support site
featuring positive images of many trans women. Lynn was also very moved by
Lorna Root's website "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which features the stories
and photos of many trans women. A number of the entries here in the TS Successes
pages are linked to stories posted in Lorna's wonderful website.

We're also seeing development of new sites that
compile TG/TS women's stories, with each site having its own special theme. For
example, my friend
Karen Serenity's site includes newly
compiled information about almost-forgotten trans pioneers, along with the
stories of friends in her extensive network (Gallery
1, 2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10). Many
of the larger transgender societies, such as the
Chicago Gender Society, have websites
that list photos and sometimes bios of key members (who are often very
approachable for help and mentoring). Circles of trans women in various
career fields are also now building sites where their stories can be shared for
mutual support and benefit. A good example of a career-field support-site
is "T-Cops" (Transgendered
community of police and sheriffs) . It would be wonderful if more sites
like T-Cops could be
created for many other career fields and for affiliation-groups in many other
countries too. That way many more success stories could be shared via all these
sites and more widespread mentoring could be done by women who have completed
their transitions. Our thanks and encouragement go out to everyone involved in
building and maintaining these new sites.

Finally, we all owe a great debt to the many women
who've volunteered to be listed here in these pages. We hope that all readers
will treat them with the kindness, respect and honor they truly deserve. These
women have earned their places in the world the hard way. Only by reading their
stories can you begin to understand the trials, sacrifices and pain that most of
them endured on the way to their successful new lives. Please join Lynn in
thanking all these wonderful, courageous women for coming forward, telling their
stories, and illuminating the pathways for others to follow.

In Memoriam:

Sofía
Iglesias (Mexico)

1958 - 2004

In April of 2003, a wonderful woman named
Sofia Iglesias volunteered to translate this "Successes page" into
Spanish, and we became good friends over the following year. Sofia went on
to translate even more pages into Spanish, doing this work to help young
transitioners in Mexico and all across the Americas. As others saw the results
of Sofia's work, volunteers began translating the pages into many other
languages too - and the translation
project rapidly escalated in scope and coverage. And then suddenly and
tragically Sofia died of a heart attack, in August 2004, at the early age of 46.
We were heartbroken by this terrible news, and to this day we miss her very,
very much.

Sofía deeply touched many lives through her support work, and lives on in the
memories of those whom she helped. Then too, her spirit continues to touch
many lives through the translations that she left behind and
the translation project she
helped inspire - a project now making information about gender variance and
transsexualism available to people all around the world. Sofia was a
beautiful spirit, and she gave much hope and inspiration to others while she was
with us. To learn more about her story,
please read the memorial to Sofia at this link.

These pages pass into history:

I
began work on the 'successes pages' back in 2000, during a time when
transitioned women were considered sexually-deviant mentally-ill people by the
psychiatric and psychology communities. By compiling photos and stories of women
who had gone on to lead successful and fulfilling lives after their transitions,
the page openly debunked those so-called “scientific” views – while at the same
time providing role models and hope for many people then in transition.

By
2005, the page had become so large that I could no longer keep up with necessary
edits, much less add new entries, because by then thousands of transitioned
women were becoming open about their pasts. The page has since been closed to
entries, except on occasion when someone leaves the page to return to a more
stealthy life. Thus the page should be seen as an historical artifact of
trans-advocacy in a time now gone by. Even so, it still gets huge numbers of
hits each year, and is an ongoing source of hope for many.

Meanwhile, we should all give thanks to the women who volunteered to be listed
in this page, back in the days when such public exposure often brought down
great wrath from hateful transphobic people. Fortunately, the worst of those
days are past, and thousands upon thousands of gender transitioners can now be
open and proud of their successful transitions.